Calendars have been coming up a lot in my conversations lately.

I started it by talking about the Franklin Covey store. This is a store that sells planning calendars, the kind you carry with you. I have been using these since I was 12 years old. Normally, I buy them right after Christmas. This year, though, I was thinking I could use my PDA, or my weightlifting record book. I thought that maybe my life is so simple and calm now that I don’t really need one of those planning calendars any more.  

I was wrong. So, when I was in a city where they have a planner store, I went thinking I would get a July-start one. It turns out that they have begun issuing April-start ones. I do not have to wait until July, but can have my calendar beginning next week.

Thus it is that I have one week during which I am strongly reminded of the difference between life with a calendar, and life without.

Here’s what happens if you don’t have a calendar. You sit down, as it might be to drink your tea and write your daily blog post. You remember that Partygirl asked you to order her some books and run to find the scrap of paper you wrote them on and take it out to the car so as not to forget to take it to work.

You return to the computer. You remember that you need to mark that you have shipped a frugalreader book, and do that. You return to the blog. Then you remember that you have a booksfree order to return, so you go find the books and pack them up and take them out to the car.

You return to the computer. You remember that you need to pick up the cleaning, go find the ticket, and carry that out to the car. Then it occurs to you that you have company coming for Easter and the house is a mess. You look around the house, remember that you will be out of town again this weekend, and despair.

You return to the blog. You remember that you need to make a phone call, look up the number, sign off, and make the call. You return to the blog. You remember that your blouse lost a button and it needs to be sewn on, that your son asked for something from the natural foods store and you said you would get it, that you need to make a bank deposit, and that you are two days behind on your Lenten study. You think once more about the housework, and remind yourself again not to forget to pick up that dress. You think of the music you should be practicing, the upcoming workshops you need to prepare for, the tax papers that need to be sent to your college kid for doing the already-late FAFSA, the doctor’s appointment you were supposed to make for your other kid, the Easter meal that needs planning and preparing, graduation announcements, the Book Club book you must read for next week (where did you put it?), the CAPS conference you need to schedule, the writing contest, and the thank-you notes you should have written to your weekend hosts several days ago. At this point, it hardly seems worth going on. Life seems overwhelming. Whither, you find yourself thinking? How did life become so burdensome? Where did I go wrong?

When you have a calendar, you just write things down when they occur to you, on the day where you ought to do them. Then, at a convenient and suitable time, you are reminded of them, and you do them.

Life is sweet.